


Introductions

by SacredPanda



Series: The Hunt [2]
Category: Exalted, Star Wars Legends: Republic Commando Series - Karen Traviss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-09
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2019-03-16 00:17:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13624521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SacredPanda/pseuds/SacredPanda
Summary: Roxil has something to prove, he just has to figure out how to do it. Trust has to start somewhere, a little mutual understanding works. It also helps to bring a gift.





	Introductions

**Author's Note:**

> So this is just some set-up. Not much is really happening here but I felt it was a necessary step. So my friends and I have been running a little forum-based RPG that's extremely Rifts-y (My friend swears by the Rifts tabletop RPG) The friend that originally created Roxil has been using him, and one of our other friends who just got into the Republic Commando book series really wanted to be a clone so she made Jatne.

They didn’t need a new friend, they said. They had their brothers and their father, they said. Normally Roxil would move on and find friends elsewhere, but he had something to prove. He could be useful, he knew he could, he just needed to show them. The men finished their meal and left without even saying farewell. At least the man at the bar had stopped trying to kick Roxil out, the other men may not have been as afraid of his war form as they ought to have been, but he was.  
“You wouldn’t mind offering a pint before I take off, now would you?” Roxil grinned at the man, it would have been a perfectly friendly smile if the intent wasn’t to show off his too-sharp canines. The man didn’t respond, but slid a filled glass slowly toward Roxil. The Lunar picked up the drink and downed it quickly. “Disgusting, I’ll have to remember to find better. Thank you kindly, sir.” Without another word he left to follow after the strange identical men. What he found would have left him speechless if he had anyone to speak to in the first place.  
They took a winding path, sometimes walking, sometimes flying in the peculiar metal creatures, often looping back on themselves. In the end it took them to a huge compound filled with buildings that contained hundreds more men, all with the same face. Five of the six targets went inside, the other waved them in and wandered off on his own. Roxil had to make a choice, he followed the lone man. He walked the same way as before, winding and looping back until settling in a dark secluded alley.  
“Kom’rk,” Roxil’s ears twitched, finally hearing the man’s name. He had thought the hundreds were just like the six he met first, but seeing them together he could see the new man was just slightly smaller. Anyway, the two of them went through a doorway, there were no windows for Roxil to spy through. He pressed an ear to outer wall straining to hear but he couldn’t make out anything at all. This was a wasted trip. He sat outside, hoping there simply hadn’t been anything to hear yet. He sat for nearly three hours waiting, and nothing seemed to happen.  
“You,” The door had opened so silently, Roxil had only closed his eyes for a moment. The man turned to his friend. “Go on, back to your barracks Theo. And you, Woneyii-”  
“Roxil, my name is Roxil. Woneyii is my father’s family and I kept it only in hopes that one day he would hear it and feel shame. He abandoned me and left me to die, but instead I was found and raised a slave. I made something of myself, _I_ found my own power. I’ll do it again, I’ll show you.” Roxil nearly got mad when Kom’rk started laughing.  
“Might be worth keeping you around then, just to see the show.” The look in Kom’rk’s eyes didn’t match his voice. Roxil knew that look, it was lust, but it wasn’t for him. That was a new feeling, humans always _wanted_ him. He was beautiful and he knew it, when he Exalted and his old scars faded he was even more beautiful. He touched his face, they were still there, just faint. Kom’rk’s expression changed. He reached out to feel what Roxil could. “They tried to burn me alive, my adopted family saved me but I couldn’t save them. I’ll never let that happen again.” Kom’rk’s expression softened again. “I was just a child when I was sentenced to die, but I’ve always been remarkably stubborn.”  
“They tried to kill you…”  
“You have absolutely no idea how it feels, when you’re so young and you can already see your death so close.” Now Roxil really was mad, Kom’rk laughed again, though he knew why the clone was laughing. Roxil was aware that Kom'rk absolutely would know what that felt like, but he couldn't start making that kind of claim with no proof.  
“Really? I was two when they told me I was going to die. My brothers and I, _deviant, disturbed, uncommandable._ They made us that way and wanted to kill us for it. They called it, _reconditioning_.”  
“Just two? I was eight,”  
“We were also four if it matters. Accelerated again, twice the normal rate.”  
“That’s…” Roxil could have cried a second time that day. He knew the story already, but not the details, he'd imagined them being older. “I need to know you,” Kom’rk couldn’t possibly know what that meant. He couldn’t possibly know what kind of plan was starting to form in Roxil’s mind. He couldn’t possibly have been prepared for Roxil to kiss him… but he didn’t fight it either. “Deviant, disturbed, and uncommandable? No, I think you’re beautiful. Though deviant and uncommandable can be so much fun.”  
“You’re not really Mandalorian are you?”  
“No, I’m sorry for deceiving you.”  
“But you know the language?”  
“No,” He touched the watery blue-green gem implanted in the tattoos on his chest with his fingerprints. “I simply understand it, I shall very much enjoy learning it though. I spent a lot of time hunting, I stumbled on this where I built my first temple. Attuned with my essence it allows me to understand.”  
“Handy,” He seemed to be taking note of four other stones in the Lunar’s skin. This one seemed more talkative than the others. Not _trusting_ , but not so closed off. They talked until the sun was rising, Kom’rk was troubled when he noticed. Roxil followed him openly this time, earning more than a few odd looks as Kom’rk took a straight path back to the barracks. His brothers were angry, they berated him for staying out all night but were obviously relieved that he was safe. Roxil was in, with one of their own to vouch for him… he felt a pang of regret that he was still deceiving them. He wanted something more than friendship and he wouldn’t use essence to get it, but he _would_ get it.

"I have a confession to make," Roxil said hesitantly now that they were all around. "I've seen your face before today, and I know what you are. My shock was real, I never expected to meet any of you... but I've met one of your brothers."

He felt a hand on his shoulder.  
"I said I'd find you _ner vod_ , I didn't think I'd find you here."  
"Jatne! You have the best timing! I've found your brothers!"  
"Yes, and no. This isn't my Coruscant, the war only just started... If your world wasn't foreign enough, now I've got mine but it isn't mine. _Vode_ , you don't know me yet, but I know you."


End file.
